A new report has found that Ontario has the most high-net-worth families in Canada, with 44 per cent of the country’s billionaire families living in the province.
Researchers also found that the wealthiest 0.01 per cent of families in Ontario have on average $546 million in wealth.
Canadians for Tax Fairness, a non-profit, non-partisan group, published the report this week, which looked at the wealth held by ultra-rich families in the country’s four biggest provinces – Ontario, Quebec, Alberta and British Columbia – as well as the Atlantic and Prairie regions.
The report proposed that different annual and one-time wealth taxes could address the inequality.
Jared Walker, the executive director of Canadians for Tax Fairness, told CTVNews.ca on Wednesday that extreme wealth concentration is a major issue worldwide, including in Canada, which he says is facing a “massive problem” with poverty.
“What we say in this report is both federally and provincially, there’s something that we could do about it, and we can start that conversation with a wealth tax,” Walker said in a Zoom interview on Wednesday.
Walker said a “wealth tax” isn’t an income tax, but instead a tax on assets such as property and shares.
Researchers in the study defined wealth or net worth “as the market value of everything a family owns minus their debts.” The study only looked at wealth held by families.
“The majority of family wealth is the value of land and residential buildings, but also includes equity and investment fund shares, life insurance, pensions, cash, and deposits,” researchers wrote.
Where is wealth most concentrated?
The share of wealth held by the richest families grew from 1999 to 2023 in all regions across Canada, except British Columbia, researchers stated.
The “most ultra-wealthy” Canadians live in Ontario, according to the report, which found that the province’s richest top 0.01 per cent of families have the highest average wealth – $546 million – among regions.
For the top 0.01 per cent of families, British Columbia’s ultra-wealthy ranks second in average wealth at $501 million,followed by Quebec at $408 million and Alberta at $393 million.
Canada has 3,380 families with at least $100 million in wealth. Nearly 1,600 of those families live in Ontario.
“However, these figures can, to some extent, be explained by the fact that Ontario is the most populous and wealthiest region,” researchers wrote.
Ontario sees extremes in wealth, poverty: report
Ontario has 38 billionaire families living in the province, the most among all jurisdictions in Canada, the report found. In total, the country has an estimated 86 billionaire families, meaning Ontario accounts for around 44 per cent of them.
Meanwhile, most people living in families below the poverty line – at more than 1.9 million – are in Ontario, according to the report.
“Extreme wealth concentration is a problem, not because it allows a few people to live lives of luxury, but because of the extreme concentration of power and the corrosion of democracy that can accompany it,” researchers wrote.
Should provinces have a billionaire tax?
Walker said provinces should have a tax on the wealthy – not only specific to billionaires – to address inequality.
He said a one per cent wealth tax could be applied to a net worth of more than $10 million, a two per cent tax on wealth over $50 million, and so on.
A wealth tax could raise $18 billion each year in Ontario, according to the report.
Do U.S. states have their own ‘wealth tax’?
The United States doesn’t have a federal level wealth tax.
However, Massachusetts has a four per cent tax on incomes above US$1 million, and California is considering a wealth tax called the 2026 California Billionaire Tax Act. Billionaires who were California residents as of Jan. 1 face a one-time five per cent tax on their assets under the act.
Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and other progressive U.S. lawmakers have also recently proposed the Ultra-Millionaire Tax Act of 2026, which would impose an annual two per cent tax on wealth over US$50 million and a three per cent tax on wealth over US$1 billion.
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and California Rep. Ro Khanna also introduced in March the Make Billionaires Pay Their Fair Share Act, an annual five per cent tax on wealth over US$1 billion.
According to the report, the primary source of data used in its research came from the Survey of Financial Security (SFS) Public Use Microdata Files, as well as the Forbes billionaire lists.
